K-pop holds the top two spots on Billboard’s Social 50 chart for the first time in its nearly seven-year existence as BTS and EXO reign at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on the ranking dated Sept. 23.
The Social 50 is powered by data tracked by music analytics company Next Big Sound and ranks the most popular artists on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Wikipedia and Tumblr. The chart's methodology blends weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with artist page views and engagement. The chart’s latest tracking week ended Sept. 7.
Though it’s BTS’ 39th week at No. 1 (and ninth in a row), EXO’s 10-2 rise marks the group’s highest chart rank yet, gathering a 145 percent gain in reactions across all social media in the tracking week, according to Next Big Sound. Previously, the act ranked as high as No. 7 on the chart dated Sept. 2.
During the tracking frame, the nine-member group re-released its July album The War on Sept. 5 as The War: The Power of Music, with the music video for “Power” premiering the same day. “Power” concurrently debuts at No. 3 on World Digital Song Sales, moving 2,000 downloads.
Meanwhile, Zayn jumps 32-4 -- the former One Direction member’s best chart rank in 2017 -- following the release of “Dusk Till Dawn,” featuring Sia. “Hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it,” he wrote on Twitter upon its Sept. 7 release, a tweet that helped him to 345,000 Twitter reactions, a 423 percent boost.
Though Zayn has risen to No. 2 on the Social 50 in the past (Feb. 20, 2016), the singer hadn’t reached No. 4 or higher since the chart dated Dec. 10, 2016, when he was gearing up for the release of last year’s “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” with Taylor Swift.
Zayn also posted his appreciation of being named GQ’s most stylish man of the year amid the new song’s release.
Speaking of awards and distinctions, Selena Gomez was featured on one of the covers of Time’s “Firsts: Women Leaders Who Are Changing the World” package as the first person to achieve the 100 million follower milestone on Instagram.
“Not really sure how I got so lucky @time but thank you for highlighting the power of what we can and will always strive to be,” Gomez wrote on Instagram. “I believe in the goodness in the land of the living. I hope this is just the beginning of more change.”
Gomez jumps 15-8 on the Social 50 with 10.7 million Instagram reactions.